Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Is this a safeguarding concern?

33 replies

Zozo1990 · 14/12/2025 20:43

Asking for my mum who lives in a flat with four other neighbours on her floor. She lives with my dad and has grandchildren over every weekend. One of the neighbours had installed a wide-angle door camera with audio recording on the floor. The video recording covers the entire floor from the staircase door and lift to the other four flats and their doors. So they can see every single flat and who is coming and going from there. Conversations are recorded. I know this because the neighbour sent my mum a video and said how cute her grandkids were. She had footage of hrem dancing and singing a song whilst waiting for the lift. It was about a minute long!! My mum is in her 60s, and she's very uncomfortable now and has started taking the stairs down as she doesn't want to be recorded and her conversations recorded whilst she's waiting a minute or two for the lift to arrive.

Is this normal? Does anyone have experience of this?

OP posts:
Original poster
Zozo1990 · 14/12/2025 21:18

NeverDropYourMooncup · 14/12/2025 21:15

It's not an issue. She's open about it, she's shared it. It's not being used for nefarious purposes.

Show quote history

I understand that you don’t see it as an issue and that you don’t intend any harm. For me, intent isn’t really the point — it’s about how it feels to have private audio and video of families and children recorded and stored by a neighbour in a shared space. Even when shared openly and not for nefarious reasons, it’s still something many people aren’t comfortable with, which is why there are rules regarding shared communal spaces and recording.

OP posts:
NeverDropYourMooncup · 14/12/2025 21:15

Zozo1990 · 14/12/2025 21:12

I get the point about security, but for me the issue is a private individual recording and storing audio and video of neighbours and children in a shared residential space. That feels very different to professionally managed CCTV.

Edited

It's not an issue. She's open about it, she's shared it. It's not being used for nefarious purposes.

Original poster
Zozo1990 · 14/12/2025 21:12

I get the point about security, but for me the issue is a private individual recording and storing audio and video of neighbours and children in a shared residential space. That feels very different to professionally managed CCTV.

OP posts:
TrippingOverMyAssets · 14/12/2025 21:05

Well I’m guessing in such a confined space it’s going to be tricky to get the camera to only film a small space directly in front of their own door but I always think in these circumstances that if anything was ever stolen or there was break in or incident on the landing, the people complaining about the camera would be the first ones to complain about there being no CCTV in the block. It’s one of those situations where you can’t have your cake and eat it. Just how private are conversations on shared landings anyway? Presumably things that sensitive wouldn’t be being discussed outside the home anyway. From a civil perspective there might be a privacy issue but good luck getting that inside a courtroom. Civil issues tend to require very deep pockets.

ThePoshUns · 14/12/2025 20:54

Not a safeguarding concern.

UnbeatenMum · 14/12/2025 20:53

No but I wouldn't like it either.

Ticktockk · 14/12/2025 20:49

Not safeguarding but very weird and intrusive

Octavia64 · 14/12/2025 20:46

No it is not a safeguarding concern.

Swipe left for the next trending thread